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scroll through Havana's Instagram geotag
and you'll see countless photos of
colorful cogs the streets of Cuba are
teeming with 60,000 classic American
cars and it's an iconic experience for
the islands visitors
a majority of tourists can tell a story
about riding down the malecon in a hot
pink Chevy Belair or driving through
havana city center and a baby blue
Cadillac but how do these classic cars
get there and more importantly why did
they stay
in the 1940s and 1950s Cuba had a strong
urban middle class and this class had a
passion for American cars Cuba imported
over a hundred and twenty five thousand
American cars and at one point Havana
was considered the Cadillac capital of
the world
shortly after Fidel Castro came to power
in 1959 a ban was placed on imported
cars and car parts American tourism to
Cuba came to a halt and one point four
million Cubans left the country leaving
behind their families homes and cars
these abandoned cars were passed on to
family or friends and became prized
possessions with owners who are willing
to do whatever it takes to keep them on
the road Cubans turned to their
ingenuity parts from tractors or
lawnmowers became makeshift engines and
shampoo turned into brake fluid the cars
are a symbol of hard work but they're
also a source of income
a Cuban driver can make more in an hour
than a Cuban doctor makes in a month
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our producer who visited her Cuban
family in May 28 so the links families
were willing to take to keep their cars
running being a driver in Cuba is a
career path that's one of the few career
paths that allows you to kind of make
your own money and not depend solely on
the government providing it for you so
it is a very lucrative business it is
also a huge investment it was definitely
not what I envisioned when I was
scrolling through Instagram trying to
get inspiration and travel photo ideas
it just gave me a better appreciation of
the ingenuity involved and the
determination involved I definitely
suggest you know getting that experience
and driving in the classic cars but I
think it's it's super important to
remember that your photo op is their way
of life for tourists it's not just a way
to get from point A to point B riding in
a classic car is an experience and an
hour long ride can cost anywhere from
twenty-five to forty dollars
gran Flanagan another one of our
producers travel to Cuba in 2015 I knew
that there were gonna be a lot of
beautiful classic cars but I thought
there would be kind of mixed into a
bunch of regular modern cars I was blown
away by just how many of these cars
there are just one of the most unique
and colorful characteristics of the city
I would absolutely recommend that if
you're going to Cuba you need to hop in
one of these cars and go for a ride and
explore the city explore the city of
Havana get off the beaten path I can
still smell that unforgettable smell of
all of that fuel exhaust walking the
streets of Havana
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